Learning To Fly
by sweetcupcake2234
Summary: ruby and yang can turn into birds. Qrow forgot about this, so he's making up for it with this lesson. also, he's drunk. oneshot.


**This is set in a place where Qrow was ruby's dad. This is really only so the story works, so don't mind me 😊. Even if I think he should be ruby's father… oh, yeah, and Qrow and Raven weren't turned into bird by Ozpin, its just an added addition to being a Branwen.**

**Other then that, it has no specific place in any story line, it's just a thing I thought of randomly.**

* * *

"so, why are we out here, uncle Qrow?" yang asked the clearly drunk man.

The birdman spun on his heal and faced his niece, "because I completely forgot to teach you two how to fly." He slurred, pointing his flask at the speaker.

"you said that before, dad." Ruby responded, "but why are we _here_?" she gestured to the cliff edge only two meters away from them, "not that I get the whole flying thing either…" she added under her breath.

"yeah, what's that about anyway? Last I checked, humans can't fly." Yang supported.

Qrow looked at the two girls dumbly and takes a sip from his flask in the silence, "you know how I can turn into a bird?" he asked rhetorically. "well, it's a thing that runs in the family, _every_ true blooded Branwen can turn into a bird."

Yang raised an eyebrow, "yes, but what does that have to do with u-oh…" that's when yang caught on, "raven's my mum and Qrow's ruby's dad… wait! Are you saying we can turn into bird?" Yang shouted.

"yep." Qrow said deadpan.

Ruby stared at her dad, "how do you know if we _can_ turn into birds. What if we fail and fall to our death! Ahh, I'm too young to go splat!" ruby screamed.

Qrow put his arms up defensively, "hey, hey, hey! Quiet down, your really loud." He said, hoping his headache would go away, "and I know you can transform because you did so when you were tiny." He said casually.

"WHAT!?" the two girls were in sync.

"why did nobody tell me this before!" ruby yells.

"how did I not notice?" yang questioned. She was older the ruby and she didn't even notice when - sorry, _if_ her little sister turned into a bird. That was just hard to believe.

Qrow scratched his ear, waiting for the two to calm down, "yeah, scared the shit out of Tai. He was just holding you when – boom – suddenly he has a bird in his hands. Me and raven laughed our minds out, got a pic of it and everything. He had no idea what to do. With you, ruby, Summer was more or less okay with the fact her child turned into a bird, unsurprisingly, and happily took care of you in tiny bird form for an entire week before you changed back. Summer would never admit it, but I think she missed your bird form, ruby." Qrow said casually.

Neither of them had a response until Yang violently pointed at him at demanded in a low but threatening voice, "Show us these pictures."

Drunk Qrow was more then happy to give then his scroll, open to a folder of picture of Team STRQ, Tai and summer holding a bird each. Tai was holding a yellow tail raven and summer was holding a red-winged crimson-tailed crow.

both girls fell over laughing.

Tai had the most shocked and surprised look of utter confusion on his face, holding a black bird with yellow ends on each feather like someone would hold a human child. He obviously had no idea what he was doing, and summer seemed to love the bird, she was holding it like a bird. It was very cute.

The red bird looked asleep while the yellow bird was squawking and flapping her wings.

When the two girls recovered from their laughing fit, Qrow put his scroll away with a grin. "ya believe me now?" the drunk asked.

Yang, being the first to recover, answered for the two of them, "ok, we'll give it a shot. And if it doesn't work, at least we have something else to use as blackmail on dad."

Qrow nodded and finished off his flask of alcohol. He turned around and walked the rest of the way up the hill.

"so… how do we do this?" Ruby asks when the silence got a bit too long.

Qrow spun on his heal and shrugged, "how would I know?"

The two girls blinked. Then blinked again. and once more, just for good measure. "YOU DO IT ON A DAILY BASIS!" the two yelled at their uncle/dad.

Qrow shrugged again, "well, everyone has their own weird and unique ways of changing. _I _think about a chocolate brand I hate." He added. "while Raven, if I remember correctly, thinks about a certain tree she saw in a backyard as a kid that has long since burned down." Qrow informed.

Ruby nodded slowly, not quite getting it, but was well on the way. Yang tilted her head to the side in confusion, she didn't get it at all.

Seeing their confusion, Qrow tried once more, "look, I can't tell you _how_ to change into a bird, I just know it's something you have to think about, as random as it is, and then BOOM you're a bird." He explained while running a hand through his hair.

Yang bit her lip, "so, what are we doing up here?"

"yeah dad." Ruby supported, "what _are_ we doing up here?"

Qrow laughed guiltily, "well, when I was learning, my mum threw me and Raven off a cliff to see if that would help." He smiled while looking away into the distance. After a while he came back and finished his train of thought, "it did help. In fact, that was the moment both me and raven changed. I will never forget that day." He said with a sadistic grin.

The two girls raised an eyebrow at his odd behavior. Hearing stories about the Branwen's childhood were few and far between, heck, they didn't even know their grandparents' names on their side of the family. And they had never told them, even after hours upon hours of pestering from the two girls.

Then the sisters-in-everything-but-blood did a double take. "did you just say what I think you said?" ruby asked, taking a step away from her crazy father.

"what?" said drunkard response.

Yang took back the conversation, "that you were going to throw us off a cliff."

Qrow opened his mouth in surprise, "oh! Thaaaat…. Yep." He said bluntly.

Before anything else could be said, Qrow snacked up Crescent Rose from ruby's holder on her back and twisted Ember Celiac off yang's wrists, before kicking the two girls off the cliff with the full force of a trained huntsman.

At first the red and yellow girls gasped in surprise at their stolen weapons and then gasped louder when they were _kindly_ kicked off the cliff. Afterwards, came the surprisingly long drop down the ravine. It was really deep.

Ruby shut her eyes and thought strongly about the first thing that came to mind. Without her weapon, she couldn't land properly, and since they had come out here to learn how to turn into birds, she felt it could be worthwhile to learn it. Ruby ignored the wind rushing passed her ears and focused on the one thought that constantly came back to her whenever she had a moment of peace. A blue hat she had seen once on the head of a random stranger in the middle of a fair ground. She had never put any thought into it before and had just decided it was a cool hat, but now, with her needing to turn into a bird and all, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about it. Why did it have to be a blue hat?

Oh, she was so going to make her dad pay for this afterwards.

Yang glanced over to her cousin. Within seconds of the free fall, the red cloaked girl shut her eyes and covered her ears, focusing on something.

"oh, why does it have to be a blue hat." He heard her sister mumble over the wind.

Before she could say anything back, her sister was gone, replaced with a startlingly beautiful red crow. She was mesmerized in its lack of grace and its attempts to fly, she could see it staring at her, as if urging her to give it a try.

before she could, a darker, larger crow appeared in front of her and started pecking her head, knocking her back into reality.

Yang started screaming again, but this time with her eyes shut and hands over her ears, blocking everything out and searching for a random thought that just didn't come instantly. During it all, her mind started to wander, going from 'I'm going to die!' to 'what a lovely view it was' and even 'damn, my sister is beautiful!'

But eventually, her mind landed on one thought that was screaming above the rest, the giant fan in the mall.

Ruby flapped her wings wildly around, trying to gain purchase on the air. Her big wings are like flat arms and they were hard to move to where she wants them. she flipped upside down again. the wind whipping her wings in front of her, falling downwards back first.

A large black Qrow, she identified as Dad, ran into her and knocked her upright. The bird got in front of her and demonstrated what to do. Within minutes, her fall had slowed to a glide. Qrow left ruby to go help Yang, who had just figured out how to transform.

Ruby slowly climbed higher and higher in the air; it was tiring but it was exhilarating at the same time. This was such a different experience for her.

Yang was having the same troubles as ruby was, the wings were different, and her body was weird, the weigh was distributed differently and now her heaviest bits were in the middle, like she has a fat belly or something. This was supposed to help her fly, but it was just odd.

Currently, she was trying to stop herself from continuing the nosedive into the ground. It was hard, but with the help of Uncle Qrow, she managed to spread her wings out and flatten herself into the air, slowing her decent. She copied her uncle's movements until she was slowly climbing upwards to meet the red crow who got it faster than her.

The larger bird motioned to the cliff they were on before and they slowly but surly followed him to it. On the way, Ruby, who was gamer then Yang, started doing flips and tricks, tried adding her semblance to her flight to go fast (which resulted in her running into a tree branch) and other things that shall remain a secret. Yang was fine with taking in the view from the low hanging clouds with the occasional flip. She could have more fun with it when she isn't falling out of the sky every 20 seconds.

The cliff was getting closer and closer so Qrow lead them into a landing. In the last two meters, Qrow transformed back into a human and took the small fall in strides. The girls were less lucky.

They still didn't know how to transform back.

Ruby crashed into a tree branch then fell into a bush, while Yang nosedived the ground in the hopes of landing on her two little feet.

They both flopped where they were, suddenly very disappointed in their skills. They sucked at this.

Ruby and Yang were dragged out of their mussing by a drunken laugh. "Aahahahahahaaa you two looked so funny!" Qrow said, falling onto his back and failing his arms around.

Both birds let out a shriek and jumped onto their Dad/uncle. They slapped him unsuccessfully with their cumbersome wings and clawed him more successfully with their tiny feet. But Qrow still had his Aura so took the birdy-beating in strides while grabbing the two and putting them on his arm.

The girls' balance was better than it had been when they were human and easily stood on the man arm. The yellow raven dug its claws into the man's sleeve just in case he decided to throw them away.

"if you wanna change back, think of the random thing that turned you into one." The drunk deadpanned.

The two birds jumped off the adult's arm and did as he said, almost instantly Ruby and Yang where laying on the ground where the birds where before. Ruby clutched her arms with a groan while yang hugged the ground.

"my arms are tired." Whined Ruby.

"same." Yang agreed. her arms hurt left the Ruby's but that was because she's a brawler and uses them on a daily basis.

Qrow, in a spout of drunkenness, patted the teen on the heads with a somber face, "there there." He said with no emotion.

Just as fast as he had sat down, the birdman stood up and started walking away, throwing the girls weapons at them as he went.

"I think I left the stove on. Tai's ganna hate me. hehe. . ." Qrow mumbled to himself as he took the route home.

Yang and Ruby looked at each other as they stowed away their weapons, planning to upgrade them to make it harder to steal.

"welp, that's a thing." Yang pulled her sister to her feet.

"yeah," ruby responded, "wanna practice with me in after school?"

She was met with a nod as they walked back to the house they shared. Qrow and Summer never did manage to find their own house, they were just freeloaders in Tai's. not that he cared.

"hey, um, what did you have to think about to change?" the red teen asked on a whim.

". . . why?" yang asked at length.

"just curious."

"hmm, ok but you have to tell me yours too." When ruby nodded yang continued, "I thought about the giant fan in the mall, the one that got taken down three years back." The yellow themes girl said.

"really! That's so much better than mine." Ruby said, "I thought about a blue hat I saw at the fair grounds when I was five. Back then I just thought it was a cool hat. Never thought I would remember it."

The two were silent, but it was soon broken by Yang laughing loudly. Ruby was quick to join in. they stood there, laughing at what they had just done, but they soon composed themselves and continued the trip home.

"that's one thing I can say I never thought I would do." Yang said, ruby hummed in agreement.


End file.
